San
Masculine · “saint”
San is given to both — 626 boys and 1,876 girls since 1880. See San as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Look at a map of California and Texas and you are reading a calendar of saints in Spanish. San Francisco, San Diego, San Antonio, San Jose, Santa Fe, Santa Barbara, Sacramento. San is the word in front of all of them, and it means saint.
How old is the name San?
San first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical San alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 500 people named San are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name San most popular?
San peaked in 1967, reaching #2030 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 9,978 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From sanctus to San
The story of San
Spanish shortens santo to san before a man's name, which is why the map of the American southwest reads the way it does: every mission was named for the saint on whose day it was founded or dedicated, and the towns kept the names. The three letters have a second life that has nothing to do with any of this. In Japanese, san is the ordinary honorific attached after a name — it is never a name itself, though English speakers who met it in films have sometimes assumed otherwise. And in American records San appears from the early twentieth century as a plain clipped form of longer names, given to women and men alike.
Meaningscholars disagree
saint
Spanish san is the shortened form of santo, saint, used before most men's names. As an American given name, San is also recorded as a clip of Sandra, Santos and Sanford, and in Vietnamese and Chinese families it is a separate word entirely. The spelling is three letters and carries no single history.
How the name formed
- sanctus
- santo
- san
Related forms: San
Pronouncing San
SAN
One syllable. In Spanish the vowel is opener, closer to sahn, and in Japanese it is shorter still. English speakers say it with the a of hand, which is understood everywhere.
Nicknames for San
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 198423 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2030reached in 1967
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%5 in 2025, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
San in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- San in Spanish — related form
Sans among us
people named San are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named San
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ascencion test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. San's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ascencion climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ascencion's path sketches the road San is walking now.
San sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
San beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to San in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and one syllable: it survives a bad connection and a loud room.
- It serves either child without any adjustment.
- There is nothing in it to spell out, mispronounce or explain.
- Everyone will assume it is short for Sandra or Santos and will ask what the full name is.
- Very short names occasionally fail minimum-length checks on forms and websites.
- It leans to girls without settling, so a form will guess and will often be wrong.
- In Spanish it is a word rather than a name, and Spanish speakers will hear it that way.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put San to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
San
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named San are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name San in 2025?
- San ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name San?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named San — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name San with classmates?
- San will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside San
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles San? See the current top 100.
Choosing between San and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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